President Donald Trump plans to keep the United States-Mexico border protected by the military until the border wall is complete.
"I told Mexico, and I respect what they did, I said, look, your laws are very powerful, your laws are very strong. We have very bad laws for our border and we are going to be doing some things, I spoke with (Defense Secretary James) Mattis, we're going to do some things militarily. Until we can have a wall and proper security, we're going to be guarding our border with the military. That's a big step. We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally, disappearing, and by the way never showing up for court," said Trump.
Two sources confirmed to CNN that Trump has thought about funding construction of a border wall with Mexico through the US military budget.
This is not the first time that troops have been sent to guard the border.
In 2006, George W. Bush sent 6,000 troops to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to repair a secondary border fence and fly helicopters full of border protection agents overhead, trying to stop immigrants entering the United States illegally.
In 2010, Barack Obama announced he would send 1,200 National Guard troops to protect the border as well.
Trump also stated, "Our laws are so weak and so pathetic... it's like we have no border."